Just to preface, I have used Bank of America as my primary checking account since my freshman year of college (over 17 years ago) and have been overall happy with them. I also recently acquired their Alaska Airlines Visa Signature card, which I am also happy with so far. But after looking to them for an auto loan to finance my new vehicle several months ago, I was less than impressed and wanted to share my experience.
After approving me online for a car loan of up to $20,000 with an interest rate of 4%, BoA emailed me a code and said that it could be used at any approved BoA dealership. After selecting my vehicle at an approved BoA dealership, negotiating it down to ~$15,000 with the salesman, and signing all the paperwork, it was time to pay for my new car. From that point on, there were a number of minor blips along the way with the financing, like the BoA code not working initially. Once we got my BoA auto loan officer on the phone, he gave us a new code and everything was seemingly finalized. I left the dealership happy with my new car and agreement from BoA.
About a week later, I received a call from the dealership's financial officer, that BoA was "reneging on the agreement" (per the financial officer) and now was only agreeing to pay 95% of the ~$15,000. When I called BoA to ask for an explanation, my auto loan officer was unavailable, but the available BoA representative confirmed that it was now financing only 95%. However, the representative could not figure out the reason. She said there must have been something in the fine print to explain, but that my auto loan officer would have to get back to me to explain. I never heard back from anyone.
After combing throught the fine print of the agreement myself, I could not find a reason to explain BoA's actions. Nevertheless, even if they were legally or otherwise justified, I am still unhappy with their actions. Not only did they "change their mind" a week later, they left me to dry on the remaining 5% of the loan, with not even a call or followup to explain why. And it was not impressive that the representative could not explain why (or that she didn't have my loan officer follow up with a call later).
Luckily I had a previous offer from Vystar for an even lower rate of 3%. I called Vystar explaining what happened, and they overnighted me a check for the ~$15,000. My loan is now with them, and I have been extremely happy with their customer service. Not only am I paying a slightly lower rate, but their representatives are very knowledgeable willing to spend considerable time explaining matters about my account.
Anyway, my experience with BoA may be an isolated incident, since I noticed the Simple Dollar website rated them as one of the top 3 best big banks for auto loans. And I have otherwise been pretty happy with them throughout the years, with no major issues. That being said, I thought I should share my experience. My recommendation is to shop around for rates, and definitely check with credit unions. Vystar is amazing (although membership is limited by geography), but for auto loans I also recommend Navy Federal (who has offered to refinance the loan for an even lower rate--but I'll probably keep the auto loan with Vystar out of appreciation for them "saving the day" when my issues with BoA arose).
Sorry for the rambling rant. Good luck to all out there in the hunt for a new or used car. I wish you a smooth and painless process.
Jeff
